Athlon XP -> Athlon 64: worth the price?

[Umi.Ryuuzaki]

As I am slowly saving money and doing some extra commissioned tech work, i'm also preping for an upgrade. I recently threw in a random 512 DDR 333 stick (since my FSB is running at 333) and tried the game at 1.5gb of ram just for the heck of it. Oh my it was a difference. I went from Medium settings on everything except dyamatic shadows and lighting and AA off @30-55FPS (lower during really heavy battles) to the following:

Terrain, Effects, Texture, Lighting, Dyamatic Lighting, and Texture Filtering at Medium, Geometry at high, 2x AA on, Dyamatic shadows off @ 31fps-65 FPS (dips a wee bit lower during crazy fights or crappy server).

Base resolution: 1280x960, but at 1280x1024 for the LCD. Viewing distance was at 100%. The vid card was a 6600GT! Even i was surprised...

This prompt me to think I should upgrade the CPU next, but not to something so high, seeing that I will build a brand new system when AMD releases thier new stuff, so I figure a low-end A64 should be fine. Would I see a big enough difference to justify spending 250-350 USD on a small upgrade?

What i'm looking at: Either a s754 2800+ with a decent, no frills mobo of NF3 250GB, s939 of 3000+ venice core and play OC, or a s939 3500+ and a NF3 ultra-d that supports AGP.

Or, keep my system and wait til AMD M2?

[Sir. S.A.S]

Re: Athlon XP -> Athlon 64: worth the price?

go for the 3500+ but make sure its a venice core as there the best cores out atthe moment!!!

you would probaly see a noticible improvement in load up times and FPS and as the 3500 is equal to a P4 3.2ghz then id buy one if i was you.

Also dont use the stoc fan its truly useless!!!!

[lil_jimmy_norton]

Re: Athlon XP -> Athlon 64: worth the price?

go for the 3500+ but make sure its a venice core as there the best cores out atthe moment!!!

you would probaly see a noticible improvement in load up times and FPS and as the 3500 is equal to a P4 3.2ghz then id buy one if i was you.

Also dont use the stoc fan its truly useless!!!!

Um. no... The 3500+ is roughtly equal to a Intel 3.5Ghz..... And BF2 isn't all that CPU intensive, so you probably wouldn't see a boost in FPS. But I still think it's worh it. If not for BF2, then just for your everyday tasks. Just go with a decent mobo (buy mine ) and a 3000+.

[neo265]

Re: Athlon XP -> Athlon 64: worth the price?

I went from an AthlonXP2700 to the Venice 3500 (Nforce3 Ultra) and was very impressed with the improvement. Although BF2 is not a CPU intensive game, changing to the Venice 3500 made a hell of a difference. Probably down to the on die enhanced memory controller, hypertransport bus and more efficient core.

However as BF2 is not a CPU intensive game, it has been proven that there is hardly any improvement between same generation CPUs. I recall a benchmark that a webite did found only a 3FPS improvement between the A64 3000 and A64 4000. Other games will see a big difference, but its worth noting if BF2 is your main priority and budget is tight.

[neo265]

Re: Athlon XP -> Athlon 64: worth the price?

Also dont use the stoc fan its truly useless!!!!

Whats useless with the Stock HSF? I used it with some Artic Silver and it runs very quiet and temps are 29 - 33 degrees idle and 36 - 42 degrees loaded. Not bad in my eyes.

[lil_jimmy_norton]

Re: Athlon XP -> Athlon 64: worth the price?

Stock fan on A64s is actually very good.

[imported_DaDDeh]

Re: Athlon XP -> Athlon 64: worth the price?

My next upgrade is the amd64-4000 san diego as its got a 1mb L2 cache over the venice's 512k L2 cache, both chips seem the same other wise, not tech minded here but 1mb L2 sounds better then 512k L2. :)

[neo265]

Re: Athlon XP -> Athlon 64: worth the price?

Yea does improve things in processor intensive tasks, not sure what improvements it would have on BF2 though as its not a cpu intensive game.

[SenorDingDong]

Re: Athlon XP -> Athlon 64: worth the price?

The stock fan on Athlon 64 3500+ is actually pretty nice. Im using it completely stock and it sits around 40-50 C.

The stock fan on my old Athlon XP 2800+ used to run around 65C so much better.

[neo265]

Re: Athlon XP -> Athlon 64: worth the price?

I think its only worth upgrading the stock HSF if you want to do some heavy overclocking, but that isnt me.

[Leopardi]

Re: Athlon XP -> Athlon 64: worth the price?

That cache isn't so important, only about 1-5% difference. Buy a 3500+, i'm getting it too :)

[Dethred]

Re: Athlon XP -> Athlon 64: worth the price?

I just ordered the 3500+, and I expect to see a major FPS and stability increase. Of course I am going from a P4 2.0ghz. People try to say that there is no bottleneck for the 6800GT, but I am getting 1/2 the FPS of others with the same setup and better CPUs. From what I've noticed another above a 3000+ won't make a difference, but an old 2ghz just wont cut it.

[N2K]

Re: Athlon XP -> Athlon 64: worth the price?

go for the 3500+ but make sure its a venice core as there the best cores out atthe moment!!!

you would probaly see a noticible improvement in load up times and FPS and as the 3500 is equal to a P4 3.2ghz then id buy one if i was you.

Also dont use the stoc fan its truly useless!!!!

i have the 3200+ @ 2.5, what cooling do you use for your 3500+?

[Noni]

Re: Athlon XP -> Athlon 64: worth the price?

Original poster,

Lol this is aint too good of a place to ask for reccomendations. But ill try to help.

If you want to OC you need some good ram, and motherboard. Cooling also (obviously).

Listen, sell all your old parts and get a new system. It runs BF2 fine so whats the problem? A CPU upgrade is OK, but to OC you really need an Nforce4 Lanparty.

So that means- NEW RAM, NEW cooling, NEW PROCESSOR and maybe a new PSU.

That to me looks like a new system. Save up! Get a Lanparty N4 ULTRA D and 3000+ and overclock to 2.4ghz (3800+ speed).

Good luck!

[imported_Wasp]

Re: Athlon XP -> Athlon 64: worth the price?

Go for the Socket 939 AMD 64 with dual DDR. And other motherboards will give you decent overclocking like the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum or my Gigabyte K8NS-Ultra 939. I have tested several different systems and graphic cards with BF2 and I believe the reason socket 939 whoops socket 754 is the memory bandwidth. My system is an AMD64 3000+ socket 939 running at 2.52Ghz with Patriot XBL 2x512MB memory at 450Mhz (6-3-3 CL2). Gigabyte K8NS Ultra 939 motherboard (Nforce3 Ultra), Club3D X800XT running at 520/580 and an Audigy 2. I also have a 6800 Ultra OC lying around which I have used alot in BF2.

My graphic settings in Bf2 are 1280x960 @ 85Hz, terrain at high and all others at medium except view distance at 100% and texture filtering at high. With these settings I usually get between 80 - 99FPS. In very extreme curcumstances (artillery strikes in 64 player city maps) I occationally drop to 50FPS. The reason I keep some stuff at medium is I put FPS first and when I fly I cannot have any harddrive trashing..